New Delhi protests after Iran fires at two Indian-flagged ships in Strait of Hormuz
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Ships and tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Musandam, Oman, on April 18.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- India protested to Iran after two Indian ships were shot at in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas.
- Iran reimposed restrictions on April 18, reversing its pledge to reopen the Strait, after a US counter-blockade.
- India urged Iran to allow India-bound ships passage, as India relies heavily on LPG imports through the Strait.
AI generated
MUMBAI - New Delhi summoned the Iranian ambassador on April 18 to lodge a protest over a “shooting incident” involving two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the foreign ministry said.
Iran has reversed its pledge to reopen the strategic trade route to commercial traffic during a ceasefire in the Middle East war, in protest against a US counter-blockade of the waterway, a crucial passage for crude oil and gas.
Security monitors said several commercial ships came under fire and threats from Iranian forces on April 18 as they tried to cross the strait.
India’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had summoned the Iranian ambassador and “conveyed India’s deep concern at the shooting incident earlier today involving two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz”.
New Delhi also urged Iran to “resume at the earliest the process of facilitating India-bound ships across the Strait”, the statement said, adding that the envoy “undertook to convey these views to the Iranian authorities”.
Monitoring site TankerTrackers.com said in post on social media platform X that “two Indian vessels were forced back west out of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran’s Sepah (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) Navy”, adding that one of the vessels was “an Indian-flagged VLCC (very large crude carrier) supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi oil”.
India, the world’s second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), has managed to secure passage for several Indian-flagged vessels in recent weeks.
It imports about 60 per cent of its LPG needs and has been grappling with a gas crunch since the war in the Middle East began on Feb 28.
New Delhi maintains strong relations with Tehran but has steadily expanded cooperation with Iran’s rival Israel in defence, agriculture, technology and cybersecurity.
US President Donald Trump said on April 17 that Iran had agreed to open the strait, while Iranian officials said they wanted the US to fully lift its blockade of Iranian tankers.
More than a dozen tankers, including three sanctioned vessels, passed through the Strait of Hormuz after a 50-day blockade was lifted on April 17, shipping data showed, before Iran reimposed restrictions on April 18 and fired at some vessels. AFP, REUTERS
